Eustice, a Lansing High senior, had placed sixth at state in Class 4A in each of the past two years. She didn't want to go home empty-handed during her final trip to state.

"There's always the, 'Well, you did it last year so you've got to do it again,'" Eustice said.

It turned out she had nothing to worry about. She entered the competition with the bar at eight feet. She cleared that on her first try and did the same at eight-foot-six and nine feet. By then the field of 16 had been trimmed in half. When Eustice cleared nine-foot-six on her second attempt that put her into the final four.

"Consistency is the key," Eustice said, "so I was just really trying to focus and get the least number of misses possible."

Eustice expended some extra energy when she went to run the third leg of the 400-meter relay before trying to vault 10-0. She nearly cleared it on her second try but knocked the bar off.

Eustice said she was sad that her career was over and was disappointed that she was unable to clear 10 feet this season, but she said she was pleased with her career-best fourth-place metal.

"Fourth place is good," she said. 'I wish I could've cleared 10, but there's not much I can do about it now."

Eustice won't be taking home a medal in the relay. She and teammates Natalie Groves, Takeisha Jenkins and Laura Abramovitz placed ninth in the state and were the odd team out for the state finals after a bad handoff slowed them down. They finished with a time of 52.35. Eighth place went to Mill Valley which ran the race in 51.96.

"I'm glad our relay team even made it to state because that was our major goal," Eustice said. "We just really wanted to come to state. I wish we were still running."

Eustice will attend Washburn University in Topeka this fall. She will be a cheerleader for the Ichabods and Lady Blues. She also is considering walking on to Washburn's first-year track team.

"If they have a track program I'm definitely going to get in contact with the coach," she said.